Passing the torch

Farewell from BW's weed writer

By Will Brendza - July 23, 2024
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In the four years since I inherited this column, eight states have legalized recreational cannabis, Colorado has decriminalized psilocybin, ibogaine and mescaline for therapeutic use, Mexico and Thailand legalized cannabis, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has moved to officially reclassify cannabis — not to mention all we’ve learned about the scientific nature and medical applications of these substances.

The drug beat has been a wild ride. I’ve found myself talking to fascinating people — entrepreneurs, lawmakers, scientists, lawyers, chefs, convicted criminals, federal law enforcement officers, growers, brewers, artists, teachers, students, nurses and doctors — and learning so much from them. I’ve gotten to tour too many grow operations to count, been inside extraction labs and sampled a lot of the products along the way. This column won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and took me to Chicago on a nomination for an Association of Alternative Newsmedia award in 2022.

I knew I’d have to pass the torch eventually, and that time has come. Weed Between the Lines (now On Drugs) has been a great source of pride for me, but it was never my “baby.” Leeland Rucker started it in 2013 following the recreational legalization of cannabis in Colorado. Then it was helmed by Sarah Haas, Sidni West and a few others filling in here and there.

I became the steward of this column in March 2020. This back page has been a welcome home for my words and stories since. The goal has always been to elevate the conversation around cannabis and drugs in general. I didn’t want to write strain reviews or product profiles. The world didn’t need another “stoner” column: There was more than enough breaking news, policy, business and science to cover.

A few highlights from the years: I talked with John Nores, a retired fish and game warden from California, who spent his career busting illegal grow ops on public land (“Illegal grows go private,” May 22, 2024). I covered a groundbreaking initiative between Denver Beer Company and The Clinic dispensary, where gaseous carbon — captured from the beer brewing process — was used to stimulate cannabis plant growth (“Closing the Loop,” July 28, 2022). I detailed LifeTonic’s industry-first solventless CBD extraction process (“Solving the solvent problem,” Oct. 7, 2021). I wrote about how cannabis-detecting police K-9s were being retired en masse in Colorado because of the legalization of cannabis (“Hanging up the K-9 harness,” March 24, 2022). Once, Boulder Weekly even sent me to Boulder’s Center for Medicinal Mindfulness to participate in a cannabis meditation ceremony (“The power of medicinal mindfulness,” Nov. 24, 2021).

It’s hard to pick favorites out of close to 200 articles. But those are a few of mine.

Letting go won’t be easy. I’ll miss the feeling of sitting down at a brewery (where I did most of the writing for this column) with a blank page, a good interview and a looming deadline. I’d be lying if I told you that weekly rush never caused me anxiety. But if there’s one truth I learned covering this topic, it’s that there is never a lack of subject matter. Policies are always shifting, people are always concocting new ways to grow, extract or sell cannabis and psychedelics, and scientists are constantly learning about these substances and their medical and therapeutic potential.

As much as I’d love to take credit for all of the progress made regarding cannabis and psychedelics over the last four years, I know this column reached a relatively small pool of Coloradans. But if even one person picked this newspaper up in the last four years, flipped to this back page and learned something or read a story that touched them, then I’m comfortable declaring mission success.

With that, I’m signing off to go see if the grass is any greener on the other side. It’s been a pleasure and an honor writing for this community about something so strange and close to my heart. I only hope whoever takes the reins from here enjoys it as much as I have.

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